Just another effect of economic downturn!

Note: The thoughts in this article are from November 2008. Posting it now, updates will follow.

If you are thinking this is another lecture on the current scenario of market going haywire, then you are about 10% correct. With the numerous biggies going bankrupt, the “safe” ones are trying out ways and means to save their asses. There is acute lack of funding, with employees being retrenched at the drop of a hat! The joke is around that says there is a shortfall of pink-slips in the market.

Panic has been over-bearing on the people’s minds. Many companies that were taken over had given the option to the employees to join the acquirer’s firm, which most gladly consented to. But tough luck for the people who were simply asked to leave. They were seen walking out of the office premises with their stuff in boxes. It was a sad trudge towards home with an indefinite tension of getting employed again.

Then again, companies also took this opportune moment to declare no raise for their employees. With top tier management giving up their yearly allowances to save the firm’s financial status, it only seems reasonable and even “justified” that the people give up their raise and just be glad with the fact that they have a job at hand.

Now coming to the point I started writing this article about, there are ongoing team changes that are happening because of sudden hacking of funding from the clients. It does seem very easy for people without jobs. They can always stand up and say, “Monsieur, be glad you still have the option of a monthly bulk of money being transferred to your account.” I agree and empathize with them. This article is not to demean their condition. It is about the self-doubt and dread a person goes through while he/she is being shifted to another team.

One – the doubt (and sometimes the fact) that you weren’t productive and important enough for the team to be selected to move out. It’s like implicitly shattering your morale. Two – before you are absorbed in another team, there is always the bell that rings in your head and says that if there is no requirement, they might as well ask you to leave! Moreover, the receiving end of the employee, as in the team that is going to recruit you, will know for sure that the manager is not going to push his/her best employees to them, so they also will be over-cautious of selecting new members.

By now you must have guessed that it is me who has to shift teams within three months’ of joining a company just because the client has no money to fund the entire team.

As for the flip (read better) side, office life is quite lazy due to this redeployment. With the team to change, there is around 10 hours of productive weekly work currently (the operative word here being ‘productive’)! Can you beat that? My project manager calls it honeymoon period and coaxes me to take full advantage of it.

Frankly, my second job has been a lucky break. I landed with a good hike and great work profile just before the economy touched its nadir. The current situation is that I was on the verge of settling down, getting comfy with my colleagues and starting to interact with people around, when this thing popped up! I’ll have to start all over again, of acquainting myself to the new work and people.

I have a problem, not a drinking one though. Throughout my 25 years of life, I have been very conscious about what others think about me. And by some weird calculations, I figure out if a person is better or worse than me. You know what I mean? Let me try and explain it. I get a fantastic instinct in my gut that ‘voila babes’! This nerd (in both male and female version) is better than me in some respect and ‘kapoot’ – there goes my confidence up the fire-shoot. I stammer a bit, smile a bit and pull through the conversation as smoothly as possible. Trust me; I do it pretty well too.

Of all surprises, guess what people actually think about me with about 3-4 months’ acquaintance! If I tell them I am a worry-head, they shrug it off and say – “You don’t look like one”. Now that comes as a pleasant comment for me, for someone who has heard throughout in life - “Your tension gets us nervous” (my school friends will testify happily).

Anyways, the point I am trying to make here is that the redeployment thing didn’t really help my confidence here but I have been consoling myself saying that it is easy to transfer a new recruit to another process.

To get back to what I started with saying, you can call me plain lucky. As the age-old adage goes – All’s well that ends well. I will be commencing work soon with a similar profile but seemingly better learning. Tons of work and responsibilities is imminent, so I am happy! You can say that all the apprehension bore fruit.

To sum it up, would like to say that my heart reaches out to people who are actually going through terrible nightmares due to job hacking. On my part, it is just another day, with a bit of learning, a bagful of dreams, and a couple of hours of free time in office which allowed me to finish this article.